HDR and dynamic contrast - Blu-ray Forum

mar3o · 11-02-2017, 03:28 AM

So a couple weeks ago I finally got to try out a couple UHD movies (Lucy and Passengers) on my LG UHD LCD set (UH8500), and of course I had to start experimenting with my picture settings to do my best to avoid black crush or an overblown picture. One thing I noticed right away was that the image was rather dull and flat. HDR was enabled, and I had the TV set to HDR standard mode (the other options being HDR vivid and HDR bright). So I experimented a bit and decided to try enabling dynamic contrast - something I would never do with standard DVD/blu-ray viewing.

To my surprise, the image immediately came to life. Tons of detail that was completely lost in the dark areas came out of nowhere. The entire image transformed. I went back and forth on many scenes, with dynamic contrast on and off, to see if I was crushing blacks with it on, or blowing out highlights, and to my eyes, I was not. To me, it appeared that dynamic contrast was absolutely necessary for my set to properly display HDR content.

Then I remembered reading a post about that last year in the thread for my TV over on AVS. Basically they said that the set was designed for dynamic contrast to be enabled for HDR. With it off, the set wouldn't display HDR to it's fullest. From what I've seen this is absolutely true.

My brightness setting is at 48, with backlight and contrast at the default 100. I experimented with low vs med vs high, and medium seems the way to go on my LG set. Medium actually seems to balance the image better, as well as provide a bit more life to the image. High seems a bit too aggressive. Low adds a bit less pop, and medium seems to bring out more shadow detail while actually balancing the blacks better. Blacks aren't very good on my set anyways, but medium actually dials the blacks in a bit better than low.

I'm wondering now how many other people are trying HDR on their LG sets with dynamic contrast off, and feeling disappointed afterwards. I like my images to look balanced and natural, not cartoony or over-saturated, so it's not that dynamic contrast is cranking everything up to some gaudy hyper-stylized look. Just the opposite. Are all sets this way? Like I said, I always leave this setting off, since I played around with the option with blu-rays back when I first got the set, and decided that it does more damage than good. But with HDR, I really think it's a requirement, at least for this LG model. Without it, the image is just lifeless and dull, with no shadow detail to speak of. I can't imagine that's how it is intended to look.

Any input from others who have tried this?

eddievanhalen · 11-03-2017, 02:15 AM

You most likely have a set with an Edge-Lit pannel (like my Samsung 50" 4K HDR set) so no local dimming is used. I have it set to low, gets the job done on an Edge-Lit pannel but this kind of processing shouldn't be necessary.

imsounoriginal · 11-03-2017, 02:20 AM

If I watch a UHD during daytime, I sometimes have to put Dynamic Contrast on Low. But at night, with nothing but bias lighting, there shouldn't be any need for it. Only some WB titles in my experience look a little dim, but in darkness they look fine.

joenostalgia23 · 11-03-2017, 03:27 AM

I have an LG OLED and I used to keep Dynamic Contrast off but I actually like to have it on now. When I compare HDR to HDR+DC compared to SDR Blu-ray the latter looks much more faithful to the SDR color and brightness. Without it, a lot of discs look a bit like there's a darkening filter put over them. It simply looks more natural, less crushed blacks, and shadow detail is easier to make out, and highlights look about the same.

I think the reason the default HDR mode is so dim is because of the maximum brightness of an OLED is a lot lower than competing LED TVs. So 0-100 is kind of skewed, "midtones" aren't really in the middle because the brightest parts of the image are now so much brighter. Dynamic Contrast hasn't made any of my UHDs look worse to my eyes, only better, whether that's digitally shot stuff like War for the Planet of the Apes, or 35mm stuff like Crouching Tiger.

mar3o · 11-03-2017, 03:50 AM

I mean shadow detail is totally absent and buried with dynamic contrast disabled for HDR on my LG set. It's truly amazing how much detail comes out of nowhere the instant it's enabled. I hear all about how HDR is supposed to bring out shadow detail without elevating blacks, and I just can't imagine the image I see with dynamic contrast disabled is what they are talking about. There is no shadow detail with it off. I really think people are cheating themselves with HDR by not having this feature enabled, at least on some LG sets. I can't speak of OLED or other manufacturers, so maybe other sets are designed to process HDR differently, but my set really seems to require it on to work as intended. Which makes me wonder why it isn't enabled by default in HDR mode. Then again, default settings are rarely optimal anyways.

eddievanhalen · 11-04-2017, 02:45 AM

I have the feeling that what Dinamic Contrast is doing is actually COMPRESSING HDR video to make it look more like SDR on low brightness displays. It's like if we are playing a Classical recording on our garden or balcony and we complain because we can't fully hear all the subtleties from the recording, you compress dinamic range, that is, bring low level signals up, lower or limit high signals and then you can hear all the sound on your high dinamic range Classical music out in the open. It looks more or less the same to me with Dinamic Contrast.

mar3o · 11-04-2017, 04:09 AM

I don't think I'm buying that. This is shadow detail I don't see at all with dynamic contrast off, but is clearly visible with it on. Colors and shadow detail spring to life with it enabled. Dynamic contrast is not the same as dynamic range compression in audio. That's totally different.

I found this post elsewhere addressing this same discussion:

"There was a thread in AVForums (was like 1000 pages long, so I can't find a link to the specific discussion) that said the software/processing for Dynamic Contrast works differently for HDR content than it does SDR. It doesn't wash out as much in HDR as it typically does in SDR and is actually recommended for some HDR content for a better image."

This refers to the same discussion I mentioned in my first post. People are quick in here to just say "turn dynamic contrast off, always", but HDR is a totally different beast than SDR, and I believe, at least for some sets, dynamic contrast is not only a benefit, but actually advised to be on.

mar3o · 11-04-2017, 04:42 AM

Also, from what I understand, for 2017 sets, LG added something called "active HDR".

from LG: Calibration Notes for 2017 LG OLED TVs.pdf

"During HDR calibration, disable ‘Active HDR*’ (self generated dynamic
tone mapping) by setting the ‘Dynamic Contrast’ setting in the Expert
Picture Mode Settings to ‘Off’.

After calibration, for best results, re-enable ‘Active HDR*’ by setting the
‘Dynamic Contrast’ setting in the Expert Picture Mode Settings to ‘Low’.

[footnote:]

LG’s ‘Active HDR’ function analyses content on a frame by frame basis in real time, to determine metadata for the scene. This information is then used to adjust the HDR tone-curve to match the content, on a frame by frame basis.

Control of the ‘Active HDR’ feature is found in the ‘Dynamic Contrast’ setting in the Expert Picture Settings menu. In HDR mode, the Dynamic Contrast settings are defined as follows:

• Off - Active HDR Disabled / Contrast Enhancement Disabled
• Low - Active HDR Enabled / Contrast Enhancement Disabled
• Medium - Active HDR Enabled / Contrast Enhancement Low
• High - Active HDR Enabled / Contrast Enhancement High

The default setting of ‘Low’ is recommended for accurate content reproduction."

Now, as far as I know, active HDR was not a feature of 2016 TVs. However, it's possible that they did add it in during a firmware update at some point and just didn't mention it. Also, this pdf refers to OLED sets, but active HDR is also available on 2017 LED LG sets. So the same settings likely applies. From the above notes, it's clear that dynamic contrast enabled is required for active HDR to be enabled.

Now this may or may not be what I'm experiencing on my set. I don't know. My set is a 2016 model. All I can say is that HDR on my set with dynamic contrast disabled looks like crap. It looks worse than SDR blu-ray. With it on low, it comes to life, and on medium, it takes on a bit more life, without being what I would say aggressive. I avoid high.

At the very least, this proves that the blanket statement "always turn dynamic contrast off" no longer applies when HDR is brought into the equation, as some sets, like I said, likely do things very differently than other sets. For LG, it seems dynamic contrast is a must. It's just a matter of low or medium, depending on viewer's taste.

mar3o · 11-04-2017, 05:02 AM

I also think there are some HDR issues with 2016 LG sets, so who really knows what's going on? There are definitely issues with HDR in game mode after an update screwed something up. And I found these posts on AVS (from just a couple months ago):

"Oh, and I was informed by LG themselves that they had already forced out this new tone-mapping into all the HDR modes in the 2016 and 2017 series which is just a downright lie. This new tone-mapping only effects the HDR game mode of the C/E/G 2016 series".

"Keep in mind, the dim HDR game mode is not just affecting LGs OLEDs. The same update was delivered to LGs 8500/9500 LED TVs as well. "

My set is the 8500. They mention game mode but LG is pretty clueless like all TV manufacturers so I doubt we know the whole story about what's affected or how. I don't think anybody yet really knows how to set or control HDR on these sets. For most people, we're left clueless as to how to adjust the image for HDR. I haven't seen any HDR test patterns for brightness, contrast, etc. like the AVS patterns I use for SDR.

Also of note, an article on Forbes had this to say about LG's HDR game mode debacle:

"In fact, LG customer services today told one of my LG OLED-owning Twitter followers that the changes made to the HDR Game mode might be extended to cover all of LG’s HDR modes, not just the game one!...Update: Not all owners of 2016 LG OLED TVs hate the update, it seems. Following my request for positive feedback at the end of the article above, I've been sent screenshots showing that there does seem to be much more detail in peak bright areas following the update. Pretty much everyone says that activating Dynamic Contrast is a must, though, suggesting that LG could have avoided a lot of trouble if it had activated that by default as part of the HDR Game update. Fans of the update suggest that the Dynamic Contrast setting doesn't seem to work in the same way that Dynamic Contrast settings usually do."

So if this is indeed the case, it may explain why my set's HDR is very underwhelming with dynamic contrast off. Here's the article on Forbes for anyone that's interested:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarc.../#579438a71e23

joenostalgia23 · 11-07-2017, 12:04 PM

Since the digital copies that came with a lot of UHDs I bought redeem with DolbyVision on Vudu, I thought I'd do a comparison. I'm no expert but I do think the UHDs HDR looks closer to DolbyVision with Dynamic Contrast turned on.

I rewatched Planet Earth II with Dynamic Contrast on and I do think it looks better. More shadow detail, but the highlights are still very noticeable, thy don't feel dimmed to compensate for the brightened darks, it just makes for a more correct looking image.

I hope eventually LG won't need this kind of feature for their OLEDs but for now, it's a nice feature to keep on if you have a 2016 model.

mar3o · 11-07-2017, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joenostalgia23

Since the digital copies that came with a lot of UHDs I bought redeem with DolbyVision on Vudu, I thought I'd do a comparison. I'm no expert but I do think the UHDs HDR looks closer to DolbyVision with Dynamic Contrast turned on.

I rewatched Planet Earth II with Dynamic Contrast on and I do think it looks better. More shadow detail, but the highlights are still very noticeable, thy don't feel dimmed to compensate for the brightened darks, it just makes for a more correct looking image.

I hope eventually LG won't need this kind of feature for their OLEDs but for now, it's a nice feature to keep on if you have a 2016 model.

Thank you for your input. I'm surprised more people aren't interested in this discussion, at least LG owners. I think this is a big deal, and very important for LG owners. I suspect for many on this site turning off dynamic contrast is hardwired in over the years, so their automatic response to this is assuming it's nonsense, but I advise that people keep an open mind about this. I can't say how it affects other manufacturers, but currently, on at least some if not all LG models, I believe it is a must for proper HDR.

StingingVelvet · 11-07-2017, 10:47 PM

Dynamic contrast was a way to compensate a bit for the low nits TV I used to have. It definitely messed with gamma though, even on low, and thus if you're picky about seeing movies as they are intended to be seen, which I am, it'll kill ya.

mar3o · 11-08-2017, 02:20 PM

But this is what I'm saying - it doesn't affect the image the way you're used to it affecting the image (at least on the LG models). Lg TVs can't seem to display HDR properly or correctly without it being enabled. It's not an "enhancement" like with SDR, that ends up doing more harm than good - for LG TVs currently, it's a requirement to properly display HDR.

It's not just "enhancing' or boosting the contrast like the setting does with SDR - it's enabling the set to properly display the HDR.

Bond84 · 11-09-2017, 06:06 PM

I have to agree. I was not terribly impressed with HDR on my C6 OLED until someone advised to set Dynamic Contrast on Low, then lower the Brightness control a few ticks (I think I set mine to 48 down from 50).

Dynamic Contrast ruins regular blurays but works wonders with HDR.

I'm curious whether Dolby Vision discs need the same adjustment or not.

mar3o · 11-09-2017, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bond84

I have to agree. I was not terribly impressed with HDR on my C6 OLED until someone advised to set Dynamic Contrast on Low, then lower the Brightness control a few ticks (I think I set mine to 48 down from 50).

Dynamic Contrast ruins regular blurays but works wonders with HDR.

I'm curious whether Dolby Vision discs need the same adjustment or not.

Same exact setting I settled on while I was testing - brightness on 48 for my LG in HDR standard mode. I found dynamic contrast on med doesn't seem to crush blacks or blow out highlights either, so I've got it set to medium right now, but that's a matter of taste. My set only hits around 550 max nits so it helps to get that tad bit more brightness in medium. I think either low or medium is fine for HDR mode in the current crop of LG sets.

They really should advise people of this. Many will see the drab look of HDR on the LG sets, not realizing that they're not seeing it as it was intended. Similar to how many people see a few poor examples of 3D movies and come to the conclusion that all 3D is bad. In this case, it's the LG sets that aren't displaying HDR without doing something that we've always been led to believe is undesired. I think if it's necessary for dynamic contrast to be enabled in order for HDR to work properly, LG should have it enabled by default in HDR mode, like it bumps up contrast and backlight up to 100. But nobody ever accused these companies of making sense.

jvonl · 11-09-2017, 07:33 PM

Great info, as I'm considering getting a C7. Thanks!

Bond84 · 11-09-2017, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mar3o

Same exact setting I settled on while I was testing - brightness on 48 for my LG in HDR standard mode. I found dynamic contrast on med doesn't seem to crush blacks or blow out highlights either, so I've got it set to medium right now, but that's a matter of taste. My set only hits around 550 max nits so it helps to get that tad bit more brightness in medium. I think either low or medium is fine for HDR mode in the current crop of LG sets.

You don't get any noise or excessive graininess with it set to Medium?

Bond84 · 11-09-2017, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mar3o

Similar to how many people see a few poor examples of 3D movies and come to the conclusion that all 3D is bad.

If people had seen what 3D is like on an OLED...

StingingVelvet · 11-09-2017, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mar3o

It's not just "enhancing' or boosting the contrast like the setting does with SDR - it's enabling the set to properly display the HDR.

I really doubt that is the case, no offense. It's a processing mode on top of the normal image, by it's very definition. I looked your set up on Rtings and it lacks the nits and color volume to really display HDR 10 properly, which is why you want that extra contrast and brightness. Simple as that really. That's why so many want Dolby Vision's dynamic metadata, so that kind of thing will be less of an issue.

Please don't take this offensively, I know people can be sensitive about their setups. I'm just trying to give the blunt advice I wish I got when I had my older TV, which was very similar.

mar3o · 11-10-2017, 01:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bond84

You don't get any noise or excessive graininess with it set to Medium?

I have not observed any downsides yet, but I have seen only a couple HDR films so far in testing - Passengers and Lucy, both of which I understand are excellent discs.

11-02-2017, 03:28 AM	#1
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	HDR and dynamic contrast So a couple weeks ago I finally got to try out a couple UHD movies (Lucy and Passengers) on my LG UHD LCD set (UH8500), and of course I had to start experimenting with my picture settings to do my best to avoid black crush or an overblown picture. One thing I noticed right away was that the image was rather dull and flat. HDR was enabled, and I had the TV set to HDR standard mode (the other options being HDR vivid and HDR bright). So I experimented a bit and decided to try enabling dynamic contrast - something I would never do with standard DVD/blu-ray viewing. To my surprise, the image immediately came to life. Tons of detail that was completely lost in the dark areas came out of nowhere. The entire image transformed. I went back and forth on many scenes, with dynamic contrast on and off, to see if I was crushing blacks with it on, or blowing out highlights, and to my eyes, I was not. To me, it appeared that dynamic contrast was absolutely necessary for my set to properly display HDR content. Then I remembered reading a post about that last year in the thread for my TV over on AVS. Basically they said that the set was designed for dynamic contrast to be enabled for HDR. With it off, the set wouldn't display HDR to it's fullest. From what I've seen this is absolutely true. My brightness setting is at 48, with backlight and contrast at the default 100. I experimented with low vs med vs high, and medium seems the way to go on my LG set. Medium actually seems to balance the image better, as well as provide a bit more life to the image. High seems a bit too aggressive. Low adds a bit less pop, and medium seems to bring out more shadow detail while actually balancing the blacks better. Blacks aren't very good on my set anyways, but medium actually dials the blacks in a bit better than low. I'm wondering now how many other people are trying HDR on their LG sets with dynamic contrast off, and feeling disappointed afterwards. I like my images to look balanced and natural, not cartoony or over-saturated, so it's not that dynamic contrast is cranking everything up to some gaudy hyper-stylized look. Just the opposite. Are all sets this way? Like I said, I always leave this setting off, since I played around with the option with blu-rays back when I first got the set, and decided that it does more damage than good. But with HDR, I really think it's a requirement, at least for this LG model. Without it, the image is just lifeless and dull, with no shadow detail to speak of. I can't imagine that's how it is intended to look. Any input from others who have tried this?

11-04-2017, 04:09 AM	#7
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	I don't think I'm buying that. This is shadow detail I don't see at all with dynamic contrast off, but is clearly visible with it on. Colors and shadow detail spring to life with it enabled. Dynamic contrast is not the same as dynamic range compression in audio. That's totally different. I found this post elsewhere addressing this same discussion: "There was a thread in AVForums (was like 1000 pages long, so I can't find a link to the specific discussion) that said the software/processing for Dynamic Contrast works differently for HDR content than it does SDR. It doesn't wash out as much in HDR as it typically does in SDR and is actually recommended for some HDR content for a better image." This refers to the same discussion I mentioned in my first post. People are quick in here to just say "turn dynamic contrast off, always", but HDR is a totally different beast than SDR, and I believe, at least for some sets, dynamic contrast is not only a benefit, but actually advised to be on. Last edited by mar3o; 11-04-2017 at 04:24 AM.

11-04-2017, 05:02 AM	#9
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	I also think there are some HDR issues with 2016 LG sets, so who really knows what's going on? There are definitely issues with HDR in game mode after an update screwed something up. And I found these posts on AVS (from just a couple months ago): "Oh, and I was informed by LG themselves that they had already forced out this new tone-mapping into all the HDR modes in the 2016 and 2017 series which is just a downright lie. This new tone-mapping only effects the HDR game mode of the C/E/G 2016 series". "Keep in mind, the dim HDR game mode is not just affecting LGs OLEDs. The same update was delivered to LGs 8500/9500 LED TVs as well. " My set is the 8500. They mention game mode but LG is pretty clueless like all TV manufacturers so I doubt we know the whole story about what's affected or how. I don't think anybody yet really knows how to set or control HDR on these sets. For most people, we're left clueless as to how to adjust the image for HDR. I haven't seen any HDR test patterns for brightness, contrast, etc. like the AVS patterns I use for SDR. Also of note, an article on Forbes had this to say about LG's HDR game mode debacle: "In fact, LG customer services today told one of my LG OLED-owning Twitter followers that the changes made to the HDR Game mode might be extended to cover all of LG’s HDR modes, not just the game one!...Update: Not all owners of 2016 LG OLED TVs hate the update, it seems. Following my request for positive feedback at the end of the article above, I've been sent screenshots showing that there does seem to be much more detail in peak bright areas following the update. Pretty much everyone says that activating Dynamic Contrast is a must, though, suggesting that LG could have avoided a lot of trouble if it had activated that by default as part of the HDR Game update. Fans of the update suggest that the Dynamic Contrast setting doesn't seem to work in the same way that Dynamic Contrast settings usually do." So if this is indeed the case, it may explain why my set's HDR is very underwhelming with dynamic contrast off. Here's the article on Forbes for anyone that's interested: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarc.../#579438a71e23 Last edited by mar3o; 11-04-2017 at 05:29 AM.

11-03-2017, 02:15 AM	#2
eddievanhalen Blu-ray Guru Member since:Mar 2008 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:9	You most likely have a set with an Edge-Lit pannel (like my Samsung 50" 4K HDR set) so no local dimming is used. I have it set to low, gets the job done on an Edge-Lit pannel but this kind of processing shouldn't be necessary.

11-03-2017, 02:20 AM	#3
imsounoriginal Blu-ray Grand Duke Top contributor Member since:Dec 2008 Location:NYC 4K collection:320 Blu-ray collection:946 DVD collection:70 Blu-ray reviews:2 Trading Score:59	If I watch a UHD during daytime, I sometimes have to put Dynamic Contrast on Low. But at night, with nothing but bias lighting, there shouldn't be any need for it. Only some WB titles in my experience look a little dim, but in darkness they look fine.

11-03-2017, 03:27 AM	#4
joenostalgia23 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Mar 2009 4K collection:588 Blu-ray collection:4579 DVD collection:236 Digital collection:43 iTunes collection:61 Prime collection:1 Trading Score:4	I have an LG OLED and I used to keep Dynamic Contrast off but I actually like to have it on now. When I compare HDR to HDR+DC compared to SDR Blu-ray the latter looks much more faithful to the SDR color and brightness. Without it, a lot of discs look a bit like there's a darkening filter put over them. It simply looks more natural, less crushed blacks, and shadow detail is easier to make out, and highlights look about the same. I think the reason the default HDR mode is so dim is because of the maximum brightness of an OLED is a lot lower than competing LED TVs. So 0-100 is kind of skewed, "midtones" aren't really in the middle because the brightest parts of the image are now so much brighter. Dynamic Contrast hasn't made any of my UHDs look worse to my eyes, only better, whether that's digitally shot stuff like War for the Planet of the Apes, or 35mm stuff like Crouching Tiger.

11-03-2017, 03:50 AM	#5
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	I mean shadow detail is totally absent and buried with dynamic contrast disabled for HDR on my LG set. It's truly amazing how much detail comes out of nowhere the instant it's enabled. I hear all about how HDR is supposed to bring out shadow detail without elevating blacks, and I just can't imagine the image I see with dynamic contrast disabled is what they are talking about. There is no shadow detail with it off. I really think people are cheating themselves with HDR by not having this feature enabled, at least on some LG sets. I can't speak of OLED or other manufacturers, so maybe other sets are designed to process HDR differently, but my set really seems to require it on to work as intended. Which makes me wonder why it isn't enabled by default in HDR mode. Then again, default settings are rarely optimal anyways.

11-04-2017, 02:45 AM	#6
eddievanhalen Blu-ray Guru Member since:Mar 2008 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:9	I have the feeling that what Dinamic Contrast is doing is actually COMPRESSING HDR video to make it look more like SDR on low brightness displays. It's like if we are playing a Classical recording on our garden or balcony and we complain because we can't fully hear all the subtleties from the recording, you compress dinamic range, that is, bring low level signals up, lower or limit high signals and then you can hear all the sound on your high dinamic range Classical music out in the open. It looks more or less the same to me with Dinamic Contrast.

11-04-2017, 04:42 AM	#8
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	Also, from what I understand, for 2017 sets, LG added something called "active HDR". from LG: Calibration Notes for 2017 LG OLED TVs.pdf "During HDR calibration, disable ‘Active HDR’ (self generated dynamic tone mapping) by setting the ‘Dynamic Contrast’ setting in the Expert Picture Mode Settings to ‘Off’. After calibration, for best results, re-enable ‘Active HDR’ by setting the ‘Dynamic Contrast’ setting in the Expert Picture Mode Settings to ‘Low’. [footnote:] LG’s ‘Active HDR’ function analyses content on a frame by frame basis in real time, to determine metadata for the scene. This information is then used to adjust the HDR tone-curve to match the content, on a frame by frame basis. Control of the ‘Active HDR’ feature is found in the ‘Dynamic Contrast’ setting in the Expert Picture Settings menu. In HDR mode, the Dynamic Contrast settings are defined as follows: • Off - Active HDR Disabled / Contrast Enhancement Disabled • Low - Active HDR Enabled / Contrast Enhancement Disabled • Medium - Active HDR Enabled / Contrast Enhancement Low • High - Active HDR Enabled / Contrast Enhancement High The default setting of ‘Low’ is recommended for accurate content reproduction." Now, as far as I know, active HDR was not a feature of 2016 TVs. However, it's possible that they did add it in during a firmware update at some point and just didn't mention it. Also, this pdf refers to OLED sets, but active HDR is also available on 2017 LED LG sets. So the same settings likely applies. From the above notes, it's clear that dynamic contrast enabled is required for active HDR to be enabled. Now this may or may not be what I'm experiencing on my set. I don't know. My set is a 2016 model. All I can say is that HDR on my set with dynamic contrast disabled looks like crap. It looks worse than SDR blu-ray. With it on low, it comes to life, and on medium, it takes on a bit more life, without being what I would say aggressive. I avoid high. At the very least, this proves that the blanket statement "always turn dynamic contrast off" no longer applies when HDR is brought into the equation, as some sets, like I said, likely do things very differently than other sets. For LG, it seems dynamic contrast is a must. It's just a matter of low or medium, depending on viewer's taste.

11-07-2017, 12:04 PM	#10
joenostalgia23 Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Mar 2009 4K collection:588 Blu-ray collection:4579 DVD collection:236 Digital collection:43 iTunes collection:61 Prime collection:1 Trading Score:4	Since the digital copies that came with a lot of UHDs I bought redeem with DolbyVision on Vudu, I thought I'd do a comparison. I'm no expert but I do think the UHDs HDR looks closer to DolbyVision with Dynamic Contrast turned on. I rewatched Planet Earth II with Dynamic Contrast on and I do think it looks better. More shadow detail, but the highlights are still very noticeable, thy don't feel dimmed to compensate for the brightened darks, it just makes for a more correct looking image. I hope eventually LG won't need this kind of feature for their OLEDs but for now, it's a nice feature to keep on if you have a 2016 model.

11-07-2017, 10:47 PM	#12
StingingVelvet Blu-ray Grand Duke Member since:Jan 2014 Location:Philadelphia, PA 4K collection:851 Blu-ray collection:2331 DVD collection:111 Digital collection:12 Trading Score:69	Dynamic contrast was a way to compensate a bit for the low nits TV I used to have. It definitely messed with gamma though, even on low, and thus if you're picky about seeing movies as they are intended to be seen, which I am, it'll kill ya.

11-08-2017, 02:20 PM	#13
mar3o Banned Member since:Dec 2011 Blu-ray reviews: 1 Trading Score:2	But this is what I'm saying - it doesn't affect the image the way you're used to it affecting the image (at least on the LG models). Lg TVs can't seem to display HDR properly or correctly without it being enabled. It's not an "enhancement" like with SDR, that ends up doing more harm than good - for LG TVs currently, it's a requirement to properly display HDR. It's not just "enhancing' or boosting the contrast like the setting does with SDR - it's enabling the set to properly display the HDR.

11-09-2017, 06:06 PM	#14
Bond84 Senior Member Member since:Jun 2011 4K collection:209 Blu-ray collection:599 Trading Score:50	I have to agree. I was not terribly impressed with HDR on my C6 OLED until someone advised to set Dynamic Contrast on Low, then lower the Brightness control a few ticks (I think I set mine to 48 down from 50). Dynamic Contrast ruins regular blurays but works wonders with HDR. I'm curious whether Dolby Vision discs need the same adjustment or not.

11-09-2017, 07:33 PM	#16
jvonl Power Member Member since:Jan 2011 Location:Hill Country, Texas 4K collection:417 Blu-ray collection:1636	Great info, as I'm considering getting a C7. Thanks!

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